preserved like sentinels to a few brief years of history—
Jupiter C, Thor, Atlas B, Polaris, Minuteman, Titan and Red
stone, all leading up to Saturn.
And so, as the buses toiled back at 20 m.p.h. through the
Florida heat, the three astronauts sped out one thousand
times faster through the cold reaches of space on a new
voyage of discovery of no less significance than was that of
Columbus in a much smaller universe which held even more
unknowns.
* * *
In retrospect, what are the chief impressions left from
NASA's invitation to witness the take-off of Apollo 11 on its
historic 230,000-mile voyage in 102 hours 42 minutes to the
landing on the Moon?
First, the extent of the 145,000-acre "space-farm" itself.
chosen in 1946 on a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic
Ocean between the Banana River and the Indian River near
Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is now the heart, and Station One,
of the Eastern Test Range of USAF Systems Command,
with headquarters at Patrick Air Force Base, south of the
cape. This test range is, surprisingly, operated under contract
by Pan American Airways, with a sub-contract to the Radio
Corporation of America for instrumentation, data gathering and
evaluation—as notices frequently remind the visitor.
The John F. Kennedy Space Centre on Merritt Island—
across the Banana River and north-west of the Cape Ken
nedy Air Force Station, contains NASA's launch area, for
which another airline—TWA. the largest employer there—
provides plant engineering, maintenance and "logistics sup
port." This Merritt Island Launch Area (MILA) is dotted with
red-painted launch-gantries, and white storage tanks for liquid
oxygen, liquid hydrogen and liquid nitrogen. The gantries,
like massive oil rigs, rear up on each launch pad, growing
J 88 FLIGHT International, 31 July 1969
larger and more complex and more up-to-date from south to
north—from LC.12 (Atlas/Agena), through LC.19 (Gemini/
Titan) to LC.37 (Apollo/Saturn). The new Launch Complex
39 is some distance on, away from the line of older sites, and
in the north-west corner stands the vast 525ft-high Vehicle
Assembly building, allegedly the second largest volumetric
structure in the world. It covers eight acres of ground and con
tains space to assemble four Apollo/Saturn space vehicles at
once. The VAB dominates the site, standing white and solid
against the rivers and amid the scrub and sand, with the
launch pads, looking like small oases of concrete, stretching
away from it southwards.
And then there is the paraphernalia of the launches—
among them the "blockhouses," some like igloos of sandbags
from which the rockets are controlled and monitored. There
is, too, the gigantic 2,000-ton, 11,000 h.p. "crawler/ transporter"
which moves the 446ft-thigh Apollo/Saturn space vehicles and
their mobile launcher on four double-tracked caterpillars at
1 m.p.h. down a I30ft-wide "crawlerway" from the VAB to
the two launch sites of Complex 39.
And, finally, Pad A of Launch Complex 39. a reinforced
concrete "hardsite" of 390 feet by 325 feet, set 48 feet above
sea-level so that the five F.l rocket-engines can rest upon
a yellow-painted flame-deflector. The Boeing Saturn V first
stage is held by the gantry in swing-away arms. On top is
the North American Rockwell second stage, and then the
McDonnell Douglas third stage, the North American Rockwell
Apollo spacecraft and the Grumman Apollo lunar module. On
top of it all, the rocket-powered escape tower in case of trouble
at launch.
- * * *
The launch, when it came, was more colourful and more
"slow motion" than one had expected. The flame was an
orange-yellow of exceeding brightness. The noise, on the other
hand, was unexpectedly moderate. From 6,100 yards it seemed
to be about the same as the sound of a Vulcan's take-off with
reheat when heard from close to the runway.
And so. 50 years after Kipling used the words in writing
of the airship R-34, we stand again "at the opening verse of
a chapter of endless possibilities."
"The flame was an orange-yellow of exceeding brightness"